22 replies to this topic

[Diesel]

11-20-17

Hey guys another colony that I'm Keeping that i also got from a GAN farmer. i purchased this Temnothorax Lonispinosus colony that was 25-30 workers and some brood. this colony has done remarkably well. the colony size has tripled and is 100-125 easy. they continue to produce brood and larvae and will be going into hibernation really soon. i created the acorn setup in an outworld. after glueing the acorn to a small piece of plastic i added small tubing with a cotton ball similar to a test tube setup so i can control the humidity and moisture inside the heavily guarded acorn. though these ants are small they are voracious eaters. they love honey water,cricket legs,killed spiders, and boiled egg yolks. they will completely take apart a dime sized piece to crumbs in a day. I'm very happy with my GAN farmer and will be purchasing more colonies from him in the future. i will continue my own search of queens as well. 

[Diesel]

[Diesel]

Edited by Diesel, November 20 2017 - 6:24 PM.

[Karma]

Great setup! It's nice to finally see someone keeping this ant, I recently caught a single queen and put her in a simple test tube. She layed a few eggs but then ate them, probably because when I found her it was fairly late into october and most ants were hibernating so I decided to hibernate her as well after feeding her some honey. Hoping she makes it through hibernation and starts her colony in spring. Goodluck with your hibernation as well, hoping it goes well as you seem much more experienced with these ants than I am and this is my first temnothorax queen so if I have any questions I'll make sure to put them here. Nice journal so far though can't wait to see them after hibernation! May I ask how you hibernate them? Like specific conditions, so far I'm just keeping mine in my garage at around 41 - 23 degrees fahrenheit.

[noebl1]

There's a couple of papers I've found on Google about Temnothorax; overall they are a pretty hardy species.  However, based in my experience, it's better to have at least a couple queens together for founding (I did between 2 and 4 this year of T. curvispinosus.)  They are a pretty fluid species, where queens and workers move pretty freely between different colonies.  They also are known to survive fairly cold temperatures for hibernation (believed to be helped by glycerol like some Camponotus), however there is usually fairly high attrition during hibernation (which is where some of this flexibility is believed to be for moving between colonies.)  One article I read (I can't find at the moment), mentioned some species are believed to seek out existing colonies post mating flights, rather than found their own from scratch. 

 

I kept a single Temnothorax curvispinosus queen last year, and she didn't make it thru hibernation.  However a lot of it was my fault as the workers are so tiny, it's very easy to kill them (squishing, drying out, or drowning.)  On the plus side, they were about as opportunistic as Tetramorium and ate pretty much everything I gave them.

 

 

From Antwiki:

"Nests are located in preformed cavities in structures found in the litter, e.g., in small sticks or nuts. Temnothorax longispinosus is facultatively polydomous and their nesting arrangements vary with season. In the productive summer months, colonies can fragment and be arranged across numerous nest sites. These vary in queen number, from multiple queens to those that only have workers and brood.

During the winter nests coalesce and typically are found in a single structure. In northeastern hardwoods forests this will typically be a nut (acorn, hickory) or small twig in the leaf litter. Nest mortality can be significant. From one third to one half of all nests are gone by the end of the winter. Some of these losses are colony deaths while others represent migration to a new nest site, which likely occurs during warmer winter days. (based, in part, on Herbers and Johnson 2007, Herbers 1989, Alloway 1983)

 

I can believe those numbers based on the several weeks of flights I saw for T. curvispinosus.

 

@Karma

As for me, I put my Temnothorax in a cooler, slowly dropping temps from about 60F down to 45F.  I would think if she gradually cools down, she'll probably be ok. May want to keep her above 23F however (at least in my opinion) to reduce chance of freezing.

Edited by noebl1, November 22 2017 - 12:40 PM.

[Karma]

Thank you @noebl1 this is very helpful! I got a little worried there when you said your single last year didn't make it and went to go check on mine and luckily she was doing well and I fed her some honey just to be safe, I put her in a little bit of an insulated set up now so she should stay above 32F and more around 43F ish. As far as the attrition and nest mortality, could these, or at least the extent of them, be lessened in captivity? Such as feeding them throughout winter and keeping them at more mild temperatures?

 

With these types of ants moving so freely between colonies and some queens migrating from nest to nest it would make sense as to why I found her so late into fall, however the only thing I find odd is that I have never actually seen this species before, or at least anywhere around where I live. I live in a suburban area with many other aggressive and competitive ants already dominating most parts of it, typically myrmica and formica aserva driving out and killing formica, lasius and tetramorium ants each year. I barely noticed her crawling across some cement steps in my backyard, managed to scoop her up as well as a random myrmica queen being chased out of another myrmica nest, that I presume, she was being evicted from. Anyways this has been helpful, I'll keep making periodic check ups the next few months to see if she survives or not, and see if she'll be able to successfully start up a colony in the spring because I will be amazed if I am ever able to find this species again. I'm fairly certain that I correctly identified the species as I can get pretty detailed photos with a macro lens but I can post a link to some pictures if you're interested just to clarify because, like I said before, I don't have any experience with this species so I could very well be completely wrong.

 

As well if it helps at all I live in Alberta, Canada.

[Diesel]

11-29-17

This colony is still doing well. I had a small die off this week probably 12-15 individuals. They were really small which leads me to believe that it was some of the 1st workers. They continue to eat well. I accidentally killed 3 of them while cleaning up the outworld and 1 got stuck and drowned in the honey water.

[Karma]

11-29-17

This colony is still doing well. I had a small die off this week probably 12-15 individuals. They were really small which leads me to believe that it was some of the 1st workers. They continue to eat well. I accidentally killed 3 of them while cleaning up the outworld and 1 got stuck and drowned in the honey water.

Yikes! They're so tiny I've heard it's hard not to have casualities with most duties like this. Also curious how active are these ants during hibernation?

[noebl1]

 

 

Yikes! They're so tiny I've heard it's hard not to have casualities with most duties like this. Also curious how active are these ants during hibernation?

 

I checked on my T. curvispinosus yesterday currently in hibernation, and all of them all huddled into masses within the test tubes.  Pretty motionless from what I can tell, and this is at 45F.

Edited by noebl1, November 30 2017 - 5:25 AM.

[Diesel]

yeah mine are going in in 3 weeks. i usually hibernate around xmas as it gets busy and take them out around late March as the snow starts to melt. gives me time in the winter to deal with the snow and holidays. ill let you know how that goes

[Hunter]

cool i have never found

Temnothorax Longispinosus, sadness

[Karma]

My single Leptothorax queen is still alive and doing well, this is the second month of hibernation and she isn't showing any signs of becoming weak or losing body mass/weight. She accepts food regularly, although I try to only feed her on warmer days. Hopes are still high!

Edited by Karma, July 14 2023 - 7:43 AM.

[Karma]

Accidentally left all my ants out during a cold snap. My Formica Fusca colony (only one queen and six ants) completely froze, one ant even froze in ice as the frozen water pushed past the cotton. Luckily I thawed them and they all survived which surprised me. Out of my two myrmica rubra colonies, one colony completely died, in the other colony only one queen lived, hoping she survives on her own and can recover but my hopes aren't very high. All my other ants are okay.

 

The Leptothorax queen survived somehow, she was also completely frozen. If she can survive this though I'm confident she can make it through the winter as I'll be keeping them in a much safer location. The only thing I have to worry about now is how successful she'll be in starting a colony alone during the spring. 

Edited by Karma, July 14 2023 - 7:43 AM.

[Diesel]

1-12-18

 

(Discontinued)

 

this will be my last entry on this colony. i am in the process of trading them away to Hunter who may or may not continue this thread. the colony is still doing remarkably well. i had a small die off of 30 workers before they rebounded and are back around 100 workers. my best guess was they were the original workers and were bound to be at the end of their life cycle. they seem to be eating and drinking well. i suspect they will continue to flourish in Hunter's care. without natural predators and weather i think this colony can exceed their normal colony max size in the wild. as you can see by the number of workers just in the test tube that there are great things awaiting this colony in reference to colony health. they are caring for a decent number of brood and should become pupae very soon. good luck with this colony Hunter. the outworld and setup are sealed tight and i have not once ever had an escapee. see below for pics.

Edited by Diesel, January 12 2018 - 6:37 AM.

[Diesel]

[Karma]

If Hunter does not continue it, I may start a new thread as my Leptothorax queen just laid a couple eggs. If all goes well, I’ll post a new thread and keep tabs there.

Edited by Karma, July 14 2023 - 8:01 AM.

[Diesel]

sounds good Karma.

[Karma]

Nvm, just found her dead. She managed to dig a hole in the cotton and drown herself... 

 

Edit: NEVERMIND!!!! After laying lifeless for several hours she somehow magically came back to life, I have no idea how, she was completely tangled in cotton and underwater for what I assume to be most of the day. I'm beginning to think this queen is invincible.

Edited by Karma, January 16 2018 - 9:21 PM.

[Karma]

NEVERMIND!!!! After laying lifeless for several hours she somehow magically came back to life, I have no idea how, she was completely tangled in cotton and underwater for what I assume to be most of the day. I'm beginning to think this queen is invincible.

Edited by Karma, January 16 2018 - 9:21 PM.

[Derpy]

Well nice to know she is alive, my pheidole queen just got killed by Argentine ants

Edited by Derpy, January 16 2018 - 9:24 PM.